“Mom, I Don’t Like You Anymore”

There’s a lot of phrases you don’t want to hear coming out of your kids’ mouths. “Mom, I don’t like you anymore,” has to rank pretty high, but way below “Mom, I’m pregnant and want to drop out of high school,” or “Mom, can you bail me out of jail,” or “Mom, I found a new career, and it involves a pole.”

I heard that first phrase today from my middle daughter, Erin. Her older sister, Olivia has said it plenty of times to me, but its been at least a week. Today’s outburst came as we were all watching the new viral music video, “Friday,” by a 13-year old named Rebecca Black. It’s a god awful song, ranking right up there with Willow Smith’s, “Whip My Hair.” I would be shocked if there’s not a parody of it tonight on SNL. Erin seemed to have the same opinion, and asked innocently enough, “When is she going to say another day besides Friday?” It may not sound funny reading this, but trust me, it was hilarious coming out of a 5-year-old’s mouth. So I laughed. Loud. Erin thought I was laughing AT her, not WITH her, and ran out of the room sobbing. Ouch. I ran after her trying to explain, but she wasn’t having it.

I have no problem if one of my kids yell this phrase at me when I’m punishing them, but it’s a whole other story, when they yell it because I’ve hurt their feelings. I felt horrible. What mom wants to hurt their kid’s feelings? Erin was really mad. She wouldn’t look at me or talk to me for what seemed like an eternity, and every time I tried to approach her, she’d run away. Lucky for me, she doesn’t usually stay upset for too long, and I finally got her to accept my apology.

So what’s a mom to do? Never laugh at her incredibly witty 5-year-old with great comedic timing? Nope. I’m going to keep laughing, and I hope next time she laughs with me.

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2 thoughts on ““Mom, I Don’t Like You Anymore””

Isn’t it rough to hear that?! My kids are younger than yours, so I just heard “Mommy, please go away,” for the first time yesterday from my two-year old daughter. My heart shattered. Luckily she forgave me after an episode of Little Einsteins and a popsicle. Nothing like a little guilt, eh? (Great, now I feel guilty for having felt guilty).